Hello Pond friends! I’m so glad you’re here. It’s newsletter day and the very first! I think I’ll be sending it out on Tuesdays.

Until The Accessibility Pond is officially launched, the Recommended Reading portion of this newsletter will mostly share links to external news, articles, tools, etc. Then as I establish a regular reading, writing, and publishing flow, I’ll include my analysis and commentary for these materials.

I can’t wait to get there! I’ll be able to contextualize more information, discuss nuance, and explore intersections of digital accessibility with other areas of accessibility.

What’s in store this week

• Tip jar fundraising updates

• My goals for the week

• 4 recommended readings

• The weekly side quest

Tip jar fundraising updates

I announced The Accessibility Pond on January 17th, and requested donations to my tip jar with a $3,000 USD goal. As of January 21st at 11am Indianapolis time, 20 donations have been made totaling $1,616 USD! 🎉

That’s 53.9% of the goal! I’m awestruck by folks’ generosity and interest in this soon-to-be community. I’ve been dreaming about it for so long! You all have helped me feel seen, valued, and brave. Thank you!!

My goals for the week

• Ship the ebook version of Automating Accessibility: How To Test for the 6 Most Common Accessibility Issues on Home Pages

• Add video descriptions to an existing article: A Quick-ish Accessibility Review: shadcn/ui Charts

Recommended reading

• Disabled People are the Canaries in the Coal Mine, The Disabled Ginger, January 15, 2025

• Your Local Government Isn’t Ready to Evacuate Disabled People, Julia Métraux, January 18, 2025

• For Someone Like Me, Power Outages Are Not an Option, Alice Wong, January 22, 2023

• Finally! The digital accessibility portal available in English, Digital Accessibility Luxembourg, January 14, 2025

Weekly side quest

The following list represents the most problematic items screen reader (SR) users encounter on websites according to WebAIM’s 10th SR User Survey (published February 2024). I copy-pasted straight from the results (linked below) and alphabetized it.

Note: I’ve excluded CAPTCHA from the list because it’s the most problematic item by a large margin and probably easy to guess as a top-three since it’s awful for everyone!

The question: What do you think are the top three most problematic items? Take a few minutes to think about it, then check your answer against the survey’s results.

• Complex data tables

• Complex or difficult forms

• Images with missing or improper descriptions (alt text)

• Inaccessible or missing search functionality

• Interactive elements like menus, tabs, and dialogs do not behave as expected

• Lack of "skip to main content" or "skip navigation" links

• Lack of keyboard accessibility

• Links or buttons that do not make sense

• Missing or improper headings

• Screens or parts of screens that change unexpectedly

• Too many links or navigation items